Netflix has “Squid Game” to thank for its subscriber growth in APAC

Netflix has “Squid Game” to thank for its subscriber growth in APAC
Source: Netflix, “Squid Game"

We talked about Netflix being sick of free riders yesterday, but its motivation to solve the problem, after its customer growth declined for the first time since 2011, has drastically increased. So much so that aside from taking off the blindfolds and cracking down on account sharing, some company execs have also floated the idea of … ads. But, really, the streamer may just need to land a few more “Squid Game” like hits on their platform considering that show alone brought the company an extra 1 million new subscribers from Asia.

Why this matters: Netflix lost customers in three of its four target regions. APAC subscribers, though, rose 1.09 million to 33.7 million.

Key comments:

“Those who have followed Netflix know that I’ve been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription. But as much as I’m a fan of that, I’m a bigger fan of consumer choice," said Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who has rejected the idea of commercials until the recent decline. “And allowing consumers who like to have a lower price and are advertising tolerant, get what they want makes a lot of sense."

“Sharing likely helped fuel our growth by getting more people using and enjoying Netflix. And we’ve always tried to make sharing within a member’s household easy, with features like profiles and multiple streams," said Netflix. Since last month, the company has been looking into ways to “enable members who share outside their household to do so easily and securely, while also paying a bit more."

“We’re making good progress in APAC where we are seeing nice growth in a variety of markets including Japan, India, Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan,” Netflix management also wrote.